Can someone explain Pinterest to me?

catgirl

I just started a Pinterest board. People are following me! And repinning my stuff! How does that happen? I'm not upset, it's just weird because I only started it three days ago, and my board is so totally lame.

Anyone care to enlighten me? Do people search for items and come across your board? Or just troll around?

13 years ago

Inspiration

37 replies

Latest reply was from Nadya

Kristin L

Veteran

People can see what you've pinned by looking at their home page-thing if they're your friend. Also, when you pin something, it goes onto a larger pin board that everyone can see under the categories. That could be where the random people are finding you.

13 years ago

jayne

Veteran

pinterest has friends? and I see those boards on my home page, and I guess the idea is to just click on some, look at them, and if you don't like move on to another? I just want to follow say angie or Denise, are they on my homepage somewhere?

13 years ago

Anonymous

I just started mine a few days ago, too - having so much fun! Come check me out!

http://pinterest.com/missgulfsouth/

13 years ago

catgirl

Veteran

Oh man, you are so far ahead of me... how did you get so much done so quickly. I have ONE board!

13 years ago

Inge

(website)

Moderator

Jayne, if you know under which name someone is pinning you can search for them via the box in the top left corner of every page.

When you've found them you can either:
- start following all their boards by clicking on "Follow All" on their start page.
- start following only the boards that appeal to you, by clicking on those specific boards, and then click "Follow"

Once you've started following someone all their pins appear on the general Pinterest homepage, when you click on "Following", the first option under the red word "Pinterest".

Does that make sense?

13 years ago

Sylvie

Veteran

I started mine a few days ago too - but I only have two boards

http://pinterest.com/sylvieylf/

Etiquette question - when you repin, do you ever edit the text of the pins? A lot of my pins are copied from someone else but it may not be clear to anyone viewing my board that the text isn't mine.

13 years ago

Astrid

Veteran

I only keep the text if I could imagine I wrote it. Most of the time I just erase it.

13 years ago

Inge

(website)

Moderator

I change the text 99% of the time, Sylvie, I don't think that's frowned upon at all.

13 years ago

Anonymous

I erase the text when I re-pin, some of the comments aren't what I'd say....

I've gotten so much done because I'm addicted I say! lol...

13 years ago

Laurinda

Veteran

I am having lots of fun... http://pinterest.com/lenamadison/

But I'm old and cranky and I wipe out any text that sounds like
"SOOOO CUTE ! ! ! <3 luv <3"

13 years ago

catgirl

Veteran

I also couldn't figure out why I was following 60 boards. I guess I got signed up automatically. So confused!

13 years ago

Nadya

Veteran

Does anyone have a favorite way for adding their own photos? E.g. the other day I snapped a photo of an outfit that was in a magazine - do you upload to instagram or flickr and then pin it? I'm trying to keep my "inspiration board" all in one place!

13 years ago

Laurinda

Veteran

If I am not repinning, I often upload from my computer - click on the button near the top (right side) that says 'Add'

ETA @Astrid - but Deb was more thorough

Fast, cheap, good -- pick two.

13 years ago

Astrid

Veteran

You can also use Pinterest to load your pictures, Nadya.

ETA Laurinda was faster!

13 years ago

deb

Veteran

You can upload from pinterest right from you computer. Go to the ADD button. A screen pops up with three options, add a pin, upload a pin, create a board. Click on upload a pin. new screen shows Browse. Click it. search your files for the picture to upload. There is a drop down box with your boadrs. Select the board you want the picture to be stored in. Add your description. Click the 'pin it' button.

13 years ago

Jjsloane

Veteran

When you sign up you are automatically following boards (which explains some of your random followers) It's a bit "big brother" but all in good fun as far as I can tell so far. I basically unfollowed all the ones I hadn't chosen myself and started from scratch (with Angie of course)

13 years ago

Ana

(website)

Veteran

What are your pinterest usernames? I'm looking to follow some new folks. Here's mine:

http://pinterest.com/anafarrish/

13 years ago

DeniseP

Active Member

I recently started this too and still learning the ropes.

http://pinterest.com/denisepike

13 years ago

Gaylene

Veteran

I can't help you, Una, because I just started this Pinterest thing a couple of months ago because some of my friends are really into it. So far, I'm not quite getting the point of it. I was also startled when I saw that I had people following me when I had just randomly thrown up a few items to get started.

I checked out Angie's boards and, while they look great, it seems to me that it would take quite a bit of time to do something like that, wouldn't it? Maybe someone can enlighten me on exactly what an ordinary person does with this site?

13 years ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

I just started, too, and I am finding it all very confusing.

I feel as if I spend too much time on the interwebs already. Now, MORE????

But. I can see the value of pinning inspirational pics. I do understand why people have been suggesting it.

Una, thank you for raising the topic. I have learned something here for sure!

13 years ago

DeniseP

Active Member

From what I understand, it's like your personal bulletin board where you pin items that you want to remember.

I've noticed some of the online shopping sites have buttons by an item that say " pin it" and that places it onto your pinterest board.

There is no way to block anyone from following you as it is open to the public. You can choose to follow a certain person and specifically which of their boards you're interested in. You can choose to "unfollow" them too.

My daughter-in-love is very crafty and has decorated most of her house from pinterest and the other addicting website http://www.houzz, a house decorating site.

13 years ago

deb

Veteran

I use pinterest as a storage place for ideas. I have several boards for different catagories. My username is djm9. Do a search for my username and my boards will come up.

Edit- At the top right hand corner is an About dropdown box. Hover your pouse over it and you will see 'pin it button' Click on that and it will download the button to your toolbar. That way when you are shopping the web you can pin items and review them later.

13 years ago

Laurinda

Veteran

I keep track of all kinds of things on pinterest -- from recipes to decorating ideas to graphic design inspiration to purchases I'm thinking of for a couple remodel projects. I found it very therapeutic this spring when I had to spend a lot of time waiting around (in places with wifi).

It is too bad that you cannot block certain users. Although I have not had any trouble myself I have seen some creepiness and some spambots.

13 years ago

MsLuna

Veteran

My name is MsKatieKat and I'm a Pinterest-holic!

http://pinterest.com/mskatiekat/

Una: To answer your question - I'm not sure if you did this as a teen but Pinterest is similar to ripping pictures you like in a magazine and filing them someplace. I used to do this a lot when I was younger to look for fashion inspiration.

In Pinterest you can have different boards. Each board can be a category or collection of your choice. For instance - if you want to have a place to file all the Fall Fashions you collect, you can create a board called Fall Fashion.

As for pinning - there are several ways to do it.
1) You can look through your friends' most recent pins and repin
2) Underneath the PINTEREST logo on your home screen, there is a navigation bar. Select "Categories" and look for the category that interest you. Browse for pins there.
3) Search anything you want on the search on the upper left hand side of the home page. It will show you results underneath. Repin what catches your eye.
4) Some blogs, vendors, websites have the PIN button on their website. You can click that and pin it to the board you want.
5) Install the PIN button on your browser.

And that's it!

13 years ago

Jyoti

(website)

Veteran

I also basically have no idea how pinterest works but I like to use it to keep inspiration photos and DIY ideas and such in one place instead of downloading a bunch of junk onto my hard drive. I really like the toolbar that I download ed for my browser-- makes it super easy to just pin things while surfing around on the web.

I'm vitaminJY on pinterest if anyone is at all interested. xD

13 years ago

catgirl

Veteran

Is there a way to shuffle images around on a board? Or if I want all shoes in one place, do I have to create a separate shoe board? Sorry if this is too OT - I'm just hoping to get some focus this way!

13 years ago

deb

Veteran

If you want all separate catagories, like shoes belts, etc. you need to create separate boards. There is no way that I can find to move pins within a board. You can move pins between boards. Open your board where the picture is, on the pic is an edit button, click that. An Edit Board screen will come up, Just above the Save Pin button is a label called Board. It has a dropdpwn box with all of your boards listed. Select the new board. then Click the save pin button. Your picture will be moved to the new board. If you look at my boards, you can see my catagories.

http://pinterest.com/djm9/

13 years ago

catgirl

Veteran

So they just show up in chronological order as you pin? I'm feeling some OCD about how everything is arranged on my board...

13 years ago

deb

Veteran

Yes, they are cronological and it does drive us OCD types crazy. I do not think the developers to us into consideration when the rolled the product out. I have been using Pinterest since it came out and have adjusted, though.

13 years ago

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